Yes this leg of the journey was going to take me the furthest west I have ever been. Now I have been to the East Coast numerous times but the previous furthest West I had been was to Chicago in 1990 which was actually my first ever trip to the States. I can still remember my sense of wonder in the taxi from the airport to the hotel actually seeing for real the images that I had seen a million times on TV and films and not really believing I was actually finally there!
To get to Omaha Nebraska I had to go via Memphis. Now Memphis International Airport seemed fairly modern and had a good selection of shops beyond your usual book, perfumes and newsagents. Rock n Soul Museum and Sun Studio Music & Gifts definitely caught my eye and had a good selection of music related books but again unfortunately no room in the bag for them! Now what was interesting was interconnected with these two stores was Memphis Kitchen. A real culture difference with the UK is that it almost seems obligatory for, especially Southern, music, film and sports stars to have their own food related products! No idea why but it seems one American idea that hasn't crossed the Atlantic. Lemmy's BBQ sauce anyone?!
Now you didn't think that given the music related stores there wasn't going to be the obvious one did you? Yes there in all its glory was an Elvis store. Selling every tacky Elvis related product you could think of including for some reason the M&M peanuts from the TV ads dressed as singing Elvis!!! Unsuprisingly I managed to resist buying any tacky product with Elvis face on it. I was tempted by some Vegas era concert DVDs but I unfortunately do not have a DVD player for US discs. Again they stayed in the store....
What might surprise you for someone who blogs is that I have not really embraced the wide range of new connection technology such as facebook. Mrs D is a facebooker but she has friends across the globe from her time in Japan and I can understand how this makes it so much easier to stay in touch. However it hasn't really caught my interest and I cannot understand people who post updates saying that they have just had an egg sandwich or something equally as mundane! However facebook did come in useful for this leg of the journey. Although I had said that I was very happy to get a hire car again the Omaha office wouldn't hear of it and insisted that they would pick me up from the airport and transport me around during my time with them. Cindy, the Financial Controller, said that she would pick me up from the airport when I arrived on Wednesday evening. Now although I had Cindy's mobile number given my experience when I arrived in Delaware I felt it would be good to know what Cindy looked like. As she had an unusual surname I decided to google her and I found a facebook entry that matched her location and occupation and yes it had a photo. So I had a good hope that I knew who to look for and when I arrived sitting near the baggage collection was the lady in question. Good old facebook!Now Cindy has to be one of the most friendly and genuinely nice people I have met. Given that she had given up her evening to pick me up she couldn't be more welcoming. She even offered to give me a tour of the city on the way to the hotel and kept making sure that I had eaten properly! This went for all of the local office who were so welcoming and took me out as a group for lunch each day and I had a really good time meeting them all.
Towards the end of my first day in the office Cindy said that she had to leave early as she had to go to see her 17 year old daughter play for her high school volleyball team. However she said that her daughter had invited me along to watch the game as in her daughter's words "it would be really cool to have a real life Englishman at the game"!!! I am sure that there is going to be some of my male readers who will groan at the next bit but I decided to politely turn down the offer. I just didn't feel that comfortable going to a girl's high school game and I also had the impression that her daughter thought she would be getting a real life James Bond looking like Daniel Craig rather than an ageing overweight accountant with grey receding hairline ... I was only going to be a disappointment!
Instead I went to the local shopping area. Again this demonstrated another of those cultural differences. I could see it from my hotel window and it would have only been a 10 minute walk but there was no sidewalks to be able to safely walk there so had to rely on the hotel courtesy bus there and back which took about 2 mins each way in a minibus! After a good shop in the huge sports store and stocking up on Champion brand sportswear (my favourite!) I went to see a film at the multiplex (you will have to come back for Film Delta blog next week for a review!) followed by dinner at Mimis Cafe, a New Orleons themed restaurant.After writing the very first blog welcome post below and a productive day in the office it was off to Omaha airport to start the journey home via Minneapolis St.Paul International Airport. Now MSP airport is vast and I had to go from one side of the airport to the other to get to the international departures. It took me over half an hour including a shuttle train and many moving walkways to get there! I wouldn't want to be tight for time!!!
Now for the music for this blog. Well given my connection in Memphis there could only be one choice. The main man himself ... the one and only Elvis Aron Presley. Elvis is one of those artists, like the Beatles, who just stays current from one era to the next. If Elvis' career is a two CD compliation then I am very much a disc 2 fan from '68 comeback special on to his late Vegas era time. Not that I don't love the early stuff but I prefer the later period. There could also only be one choice for me of song "If I Can Dream". This song is a very personal one for me and if you are just looking for a fun read you might want to skip to the video clip below...
In August 1986 I started my first ever job at Midland Bank as a management trainee at the Regent Street branch. I soon became friends with two fellow trainees - Steve, who was from the suburbs of South East London, and Alistair, who was an older Scot (he was like our wise older brother!). After a short time we had become the Three Musketeers out most Wednesday and Friday nights at the Leicester Arms (as was most of the rest of the branch who were largely between 16 and 24 years old) until closing time. It was a great year socially even if at the same time I realised that banking was not for me and I started looking for a new job. I finally left a year after I joined.
As those of you who know me well will already know once I make a real friend it is for the long term (most of my friends are 15+ years and counting). Even when I left myself and my fellow Musketeers vowed to stay in touch. However tragedy was going to strike. I had a month off between finishing at the bank and starting my new job and I had a week in Spain with my family. I came back after a week and received a phone call on the day I got home from Alistair - Steve had been killed in freak accident at his home (he had accidently touched a live exposed wire - the house was being rennovated - and had been electrocuted).
At his funeral I read the list of funerals for the day and Steve at 19 was the youngest by 40+ years. My emotions had gone completely haywire and I was just so angry at god and the world at large. How could someone so young and such a good man go so young? On the way home from the funeral I tried to go to my local church (the one I had been christened in) but it was all locked up. I felt that god and religion had turned me away and from this point my relationship with organised religion has never really recovered.
So why the song? Well I had recently purchased an Elvis compilation and this particular song just really spoke to me. I know that it is about the American civil rights struggle but for me the lyrics just seemed to hardwire into what I felt at the time. I was at home alone (my family was still in Spain on holiday) and needed something to hold onto. This song was what I found and I must have played the song over and over again at least a hundred times. It is old cliche but the music really did help me get through a very difficult time.
Seven years later the song was again going to play a similar role when my old school friend and ex-QPR season ticket holder, Sav, was killed in a tragic accident in Thailand (he was knocked down by a drunken Chinese driver). Again I struggled to understand why and this song once again helped me get over my initial rage and grief.
Steve and Sav were two of the nicest individuals you could ever meet, great friends and their death at 19 and 25 respectively was a tragic loss for their families and friends. Even now each time I play this song I think of them both and I dedicate this song to them. Rest in peace gentlemen - I still miss you both and I hope one day to see you again to catch up over a beer or two...
Now for the music for this blog. Well given my connection in Memphis there could only be one choice. The main man himself ... the one and only Elvis Aron Presley. Elvis is one of those artists, like the Beatles, who just stays current from one era to the next. If Elvis' career is a two CD compliation then I am very much a disc 2 fan from '68 comeback special on to his late Vegas era time. Not that I don't love the early stuff but I prefer the later period. There could also only be one choice for me of song "If I Can Dream". This song is a very personal one for me and if you are just looking for a fun read you might want to skip to the video clip below...
In August 1986 I started my first ever job at Midland Bank as a management trainee at the Regent Street branch. I soon became friends with two fellow trainees - Steve, who was from the suburbs of South East London, and Alistair, who was an older Scot (he was like our wise older brother!). After a short time we had become the Three Musketeers out most Wednesday and Friday nights at the Leicester Arms (as was most of the rest of the branch who were largely between 16 and 24 years old) until closing time. It was a great year socially even if at the same time I realised that banking was not for me and I started looking for a new job. I finally left a year after I joined. As those of you who know me well will already know once I make a real friend it is for the long term (most of my friends are 15+ years and counting). Even when I left myself and my fellow Musketeers vowed to stay in touch. However tragedy was going to strike. I had a month off between finishing at the bank and starting my new job and I had a week in Spain with my family. I came back after a week and received a phone call on the day I got home from Alistair - Steve had been killed in freak accident at his home (he had accidently touched a live exposed wire - the house was being rennovated - and had been electrocuted).
At his funeral I read the list of funerals for the day and Steve at 19 was the youngest by 40+ years. My emotions had gone completely haywire and I was just so angry at god and the world at large. How could someone so young and such a good man go so young? On the way home from the funeral I tried to go to my local church (the one I had been christened in) but it was all locked up. I felt that god and religion had turned me away and from this point my relationship with organised religion has never really recovered.
So why the song? Well I had recently purchased an Elvis compilation and this particular song just really spoke to me. I know that it is about the American civil rights struggle but for me the lyrics just seemed to hardwire into what I felt at the time. I was at home alone (my family was still in Spain on holiday) and needed something to hold onto. This song was what I found and I must have played the song over and over again at least a hundred times. It is old cliche but the music really did help me get through a very difficult time.Seven years later the song was again going to play a similar role when my old school friend and ex-QPR season ticket holder, Sav, was killed in a tragic accident in Thailand (he was knocked down by a drunken Chinese driver). Again I struggled to understand why and this song once again helped me get over my initial rage and grief.
Steve and Sav were two of the nicest individuals you could ever meet, great friends and their death at 19 and 25 respectively was a tragic loss for their families and friends. Even now each time I play this song I think of them both and I dedicate this song to them. Rest in peace gentlemen - I still miss you both and I hope one day to see you again to catch up over a beer or two...
Great post. Pity you didn't get to stop over in Memphis - possibly my favourite American city, at least in Music terms! Graceland is everything you would expect it to be - and the tour of Sun Records, the Stax museum, the Gibson factory...and a night listening to the music down Beale Street is not to be missed! Add to that barbecued ribs at Rendezvous (www.hogsfly.com), the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel and the Rock 'n' Soul Museum...what a place!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. Give me the older Elvis any day of the week. His later ballads touch me. He is the one performer that has completely resonated with me since childhood. I remember where I was when he passed and, in my teens, I had posters of him all over my bedroom walls when other girls my age had John Stamos and the guys from the Dukes of Hazard. I remember watching the 68 comeback special sometime after he passed away and it was replayed. I loved the words to If I Can Dream, although if I could only here one Elvis song the rest of my life, I would choose Walk a Mile in My Shoes. 8)
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